From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Thu Jan 23, 2003  2:54 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Django Reinhardt

DJANGO REINHARDT (By Colin Kilgour)

Born Jean Baptiste "Django" Reinhardt, 23 January 1910, near the
Belgian town of Liberchies, neighbouring Charleroi
Died 16 May 1953, Fontainebleau, France

Django's name seems in the news lately, in part spurred by the success
of the Woody Allen flick, "Sweet and Lowdown," which depicts a fictional
swing guitarist of Django's era who is haunted by the beauty of Reinhardt's
playing.
Along with their Quintet of the Hot Club of France, Django Reinhardt and
Stephane Grappelli became the first Europeans to make a significant impact
on the jazz world. Reinhardt, a gypsy born in a caravan in Belgium, was
raised listening to and playing the rhythmically propulsive music of Eastern
Europe. Frenchman Grappelli got the jazz bug by listening to violinist Eddie
South. The sometimes volatile pairing always made for gracefully swinging
music.
The duo built on a foundation established in the late 1920s by the
guitar-violin team of Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti, although by most accounts,
the Europeans (to Americans' surprise) seemed more relaxed and less rigid
than their American forerunners. Both collaborated often with American jazz
stars, but never reached the success of their early work together. To this
day, they remain the most influential of all European jazz musicians.
Although Django Reinhardt was famous for his mood swings and volatile
temper, his unique guitar work remains beyond reproach and nearly impossible
to copy. A fire cost him the use of two of his fingers on his left hand,
forcing him to adapt his style to accommodate his handicap. He turned this
apparent limitation into an asset with the hand literally shaping his unique
style due to its limitations.
Partner Stephane Grappelli was no doubt frustrated by Reinhardt's fiery
demeanor but translated this frustration into musical magic - the
unlikeness of the pairing was central to its amazing success.
Featuring a rhythm section of two acoustic guitars and a bass, the Quintet
of the Hot Club of France provides urgent support for the two stars, leaving
them free to produce expressive and exciting improvisations. Grappelli was
capable of forceful and energetic lines and Reinhardt was able to show
sensitivity. In fact, the two obviously "stole" from the other's bag when
playing together.
Reinhardt's conspicuous rhythm work is equally as impressive as his solos,
often dominating the other three musicians and controlling the pace himself.
The rhythm section generates phenomenal power despite the lack of a
drummer or pianist.
Django Reinhardt has been an influence on guitar ever since he picked it up,
although he was lucky to be able to do that ever again after his accident.
On November 2, 1928, a fire began in Django's caravan, leaving him badly
burned and rendering his left hand, and his future as a guitarist, seemingly
in shambles. Even at 18, his genius was obvious.
For a year and a half, Django worked to rebuild his hand and eventually
gained enough strength to play with confidence. The other digits, though
partially paralyzed, were still of some use to Django, for barring purposes.
His accident had in fact forced Django to develop a unique style, one that
will forever be studied and admired, but never reproduced. In short, Django
grew far beyond his inauspicious roots as a Gypsy guitarist.
Violinist Stephane Grappelli, who began a twenty year partnership with
Django in the early 30's, recalled that "sometimes it worked and sometimes
it didn't, because as everyone knows, he was rather difficult . . . but we
got on well, anyway . . . music came first."
This allegiance with Grappelli led to the formation of the Quintette du Hot
Club de France, which was Django's main vehicle for the majority of his
career. Time away from the Quintette gave Django the opportunity to test
his style on American soil, touring with Duke Ellington in 1946. Unfortunately,
the reception was not as warm as he had expected. Django's tendency for
drinking, showing up late or just plain disappearing might have had
something to do with the brevity of his stint. The American critics at the
time didn't take to Django much either.
Luckily, though, jazz fanatics back then had developed the obsession with
recording live music long before there was a taper's section. The shows
Django played with Duke were recorded by a fanatic named George Steiner,
who hung a microphone over the balcony at the Chicago Civic Center, capturing
the work of the two legends in their element.
Besides his Gypsy music roots and the classical background, Django had been
drawing most of his influence from American jazz. He went on to record
several sides with Coleman Hawkins and drew from big band swing acts like
Benny Goodman and later from the bebop movement.
In an article in Downbeat Magazine, Trey Anastasio mentions Django as his
favourite guitarist of all time. "He swings so hard, he's so melodic," notes
Anastasio, one of growing number to appreciate his work. When asked by
Rolling Stone to name some of his favorite guitarists, Jeff Beck mentions
Django as "the one that stands out above all else."

Jerry Garcia had a similar affection for his work. The connection between
the two players is actually eerily similar. Both began their careers as
banjo players, and both had accidents during their youth to their hands
which forced them to change their style. Parallels aside, Garcia held Django
in very high respects. In a 1985 interview with Jas Obrecht, Garcia was
asked whom he would play with if he could go back in time and jam with
anyone. Jerry responded that he would "follow around Django Reinhardt,
the Gypsy guitarist . . . most of what he plays is hard to understand, no
matter how much I've listened to it." Garcia saw Django as the innovator
that he was: "His technique is awesome. Even as good as players are
today, nobody has come up to the state that he was playing at - that whole
fullness of expression, the combination of having incredible speed and giving
every note a specific personality."
Django's impact and influence on the history of guitar has made him a
mythological figure in some regards. One testimonial held that "There can
be many other fine guitarists, but there can never be another Reinhardt."

What separated Django was his style. Every note rang true. His tone was
remarkably clear and he voiced each phrase with passion. Besides that, his
runs up the neck were taken at breakneck speeds, leaving even the most
respected guitarist shaking his head in disbelief. Django is not just
important because he was a great guitarist, but because he was unique. As
horn players idolize Miles, drummers worship Max Roach, and bassists
venerate Jaco Pastorious, guitarists revere Django. That is why he will
continue to influence for centuries to come.

The Music
From 1928 to 1953, Django recorded some 750 to 1,000 sides-counts vary.
Much of his music is readily available today on numerous compact disc
reissues and complete, chronological sets. Add to this the alternate takes,
unissued sides, radio broadcasts, and live recordings recently issued, and
it's clear that Django was the definition of prolific.
Ironically, many people's first impressions of Django's music are often
negative due to the medium. Unless you were lucky enough to see him play
in person, most people first hear him via his recordings on 78-rpm discs-or
LP or CD collections that are often made from the 78s instead of the masters,
and even the masters are forty-five to sixty years old.
Listening to the QHCF for the first time, the first sound that greets the
ears is hiss and static as the recording begins. Then the full band erupts
into the first chorus with three acoustic guitars, Grappelli's violin soaring
above, and a string bass below, the band's sound often pushing the sonic
limits of another era's single-mike mono recording technology.
The sound matches the new, modern civilization of the 1930s. When Django
begins to play, that's when the listener is hooked.

The Legend
His unmarried mother was a dancer and acrobat working with a wandering
troupe of Gypsy comedians and musicians. Many have since referred to
Django as a Belgian Gypsy, due to his place of birth, or a French Gypsy,
as he lived most of his life in France.
Whilst his nationality was never important, his cultural background as a
Gypsy was. Django grew up a wanderer. Living in a caravan his mother led
him and his younger brother Joseph, known affectionately as "Nin-Nin,"
through France, south to Nice, across to Italy, Corsica, Algeria, and then
back to Paris.
At the age of eight, his mother's tribe settled near the belt of fortifications
that surrounded the old Paris, near the Choisy gate. He never wore a suit
or lived in a real house until he was twenty years old. These French Gypsies
or Manouches were a world unto themselves, medieval in their beliefs, and
distrustful of modern science.
Django grew up in this world of contradictions, one foot in the bustling big
city of Paris and the other in the age-old life of the nomadic gypsy. Though
born into poverty Django had the soul of a nobleman and this natural
elegance of bearing and attitude expressed itself in his music.

The family would live on and off over the years in caravans on the nether
zones at the edge of Paris by one of the old city gates. Django learned to
play first violin, then banjo. The banjo was the prime rhythm instrument
before the ascendance of the guitar as the banjo's unamplified resonator
blessed it with volume and the cutting, trebly tone gave it the power to
accompany an accordion. It appears that he accompanied his father on
violin banjo and guitar at fêtes and festivals at a young age.
Django, still in his teens, played banjo, then guitar, with the popular
Italian Gypsy accordionist Vetese Guérino and others in the cafés,
dancehalls and night clubs. Playing his instrument, Django appeared to have
a rare talent as a musician, an ability respected and admired among Gypsies.

He went on to play with numerous other bands and musicians and made his
first recordings with accordionist Jean Vaissade. Since Django could not read
or write at the time "Jiango Renard" was how his name appeared on these records.

The Tragedy
He was an accomplished musician working in Paris when at the age of
eighteen, tragedy struck. His first wife, known to history only as Bella,
had fashioned flowers from the highly flammable proto-plastic, celluloid, to
sell in the market.

At one o'clock in the morning of November 2, 1928, Django returned from a
night of playing music at a new club and knocked a candle over setting the
flowers ablaze. Within minutes the caravan was aflame. Django and his wife
escaped, but not before Django suffered horrible burns over half of his body.
His left leg, and the third and forth digits on his left hand were terribly
burnt.
The doctors wanted to amputate the leg as it was so badly damaged, but
Django refused.
The left hand was disfigured: His two small fingers were twisted and limited
in use; his ring and index fingers still functioned. His family thought he
would never play guitar again. Django was bedridden for eighteen months.
During this time he was given a guitar, and with great determination Django
created a whole new fingering system built around the two fingers on his
left hand that had full mobility. His fourth and fifth digits of the left hand
were permanently curled towards the palm due to the tendons shrinking from
the heat of the fire. He could use them on the first two strings of the guitar
for chords and octaves but complete extension of these fingers was impossible.
His soloing was all done with the index and middle fingers! Film clips of
Django show his technique to be graceful and precise almost defying belief.

Grappelli himself explained it best in a 1954 interview with the British
music magazine Melody Maker after Django's death: "He acquired amazing
dexterity with those first two fingers, but that didn't mean he never employed
the others. He learned to grip the guitar with his little finger on the E string
and
the next finger on the B. That accounts for some of those chord progressions
which Django was probably the first to perform on the guitar."

The Jazz

In 1930 he first heard recordings of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong.
This was a revelation to him and sent him onto the path of swing jazz.
1934 proved to be the most important year of his life. The Quintet of the
Hot Club of France was born! As the fates would have it, the Quintet was
formed by a chance meeting of Django and fiddle-player (violinist if you
will) Stephane Grappelli. A band of fourteen musicians were commissioned
to play at the Hotel Cambridge at teatime. During intermission Django would
find a corner backstage and play his guitar. One day Stephane joined in and
both were so pleased with the exchange they went on to play together more
and more frequently joined by Roger Chaput (guitar), Louis Vola (bass), and
eventually Django's brother Joseph (guitar). A small record company Ultraphone
recorded their first sides Dinah, Tiger Rag, Oh Lady be Good, and I Saw Stars.
These first records caused a sensation! Many American musicians would travel
to Paris to play with him, Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter Rex Steward to
name but a few. The Quintet went on to record hundreds of sides and had a
following on both sides of the ocean.
It was when Django met Stéphane Grappelli and began jamming on American
swing tunes that a new epoch in European jazz dawned. The Hot Club quintet
formed in late 1934, named for the Hot Club de France, a meeting place for
jazz musicians and fans in Paris. Together, Django and Grappelli were an
inspired pair, similar to the American guitar-and-violin duo of Eddie Lang
and Joe Venuti.
During the thirties Django was at the forefront of the development of the
guitar in Jazz. His records had begun to reach America, and many major
American musicians would arrive in France to record with him, spreading the
word of this amazing musician on their return to the USA. Who knows what
effect he would have had on Be-Bop in America during the early forties, had
he been able to get there, but just when he was at his peak, his career was
radically affected by the outbreak of War. Cut off from the brewing pot of
Be-Bop for six years , he was not privy to the developments of modern Jazz
until it was well along the way. By which time the movements main guitar
innovator - Charlie Christian had been dead from tuberculosis for four years!

Django's playing with the QHCF in its glory years of 1937-1939 was
thoroughly modern, infused by the wild, free, exciting sound of American
jazz that transformed the old into the new. Swing supercharged the music,
and the sound of the QHCF came to define an era.
Django was not a solitary Gypsy guitar genius, but part of a style.
Talented Gitan Gypsies were the patriarchs of Gypsy guitarists at the time
when Django first starting playing in the bals-musette and jazz hot clubs of
Paris. Their styles of playing set the tone of the times and caught
Django's ear.
Django, however, was an audacious pioneer, infusing musette with jazz.
Initially, musette and swing were two camps of musical styles that did not
want to mix: As the great accordionist Jo Privat recalled, "There were 'No
swing dancing' signs in musette ballrooms. Swing could provoke brawls.
Guys who like to hold their girls tight didn't like that." But to Django, it
was the swing that made it mean something. As Delaunay quotes Django
himself: "Jazz attracted me because in it I found a formal perfection and
instrumental precision that I admire in classical music, but which popular
music doesn't have."
Outside the US, no country welcomed jazz more fervently than France (a
legacy of the presence of American troops first bringing that music into
Europe). Chanson was transformed into Swing and the Paris stage reached
out to black musicians and in the recording studios, French instrumentalists
had the opportunity to match their talents with those of visiting Americans.
Local musicians were however never really at the forefront of jazz until the
arrival on the scene of Django.
La belle France's Swing label was the world's first specialised jazz record
label.
1939 found the Quintet touring in England when the war broke out. Django
returned to Paris while Stephane remained in England. Django played and
recorded throughout the war years substituting Hubert Rostaing's clarinet
for Stephen's violin. He somehow avoided the fate of many of his kinfolk who
went to their deaths in the Nazi concentration camps.
During the occupation by the German forces, Django played on all over
Europe. Immune to the sufferings endured by his kinfolk who were being
harried by the Nazi Invaders due to the help of a Nazi officer Nazi
Oberlieutenant Dietrich Schultz-Kohn. Many were sent to the death camps.
He kept his head down when he had to and earned enough to keep body and
soul together.
At one point Django tried to escape to the free world, but apparently got
lost and appeared back again two days later. He was also well known for
sending his wife out to ensure that all was safe after the "all clear" had
been sounded.
However, throughout the war years Django's music continued to develop.
During this period Django produced some memorable recordings including
many of his own compositions such as Manoir de Mes Reves, Douce
Ambiance and the classic Nuages. A particularly good recording session
came just after the war in London, January 1946, at which eight great cuts
were made. Reunited with Grappelli and supported by a British rhythm
section, he produced some of his best work on acoustic guitar. He seems
to be brimming with ideas, still sparkling with flair and crackling with energy
but sounding very solid and mature.
After the war he was rejoined by Stephane and they again played and
recorded. He toured briefly with Duke Ellington in America and returned to
Paris where he continued his career until 1951 when he retired to the small
village of Samois sur Seine.
At the end of the war recordings from the USA started to filter through to
Europe and in 1946 Django at last went to America and heard the develop-
ments of the "new" jazz firsthand. It was here that Django played an electric
guitar for the first time. Listening to the few tracks recorded with Duke
Ellington it sounds as though Django has also got hold of a good amp for the
day. He has that uniquely big tone, but very little of the distortion which
is characteristic of his early attempts to record with electric guitar. Many
such recordings appeared during 1947, the result of poor amplification and
Django's naturally aggressive acoustic technique. Ironically this sound has
become accepted in Django circles, and some players go out of their way to
specifically imitate this sound.
Django was known to be a great spender of money. No sooner had he earned
his wages, or taken an advance on gigs yet to be played, the money would be
gone. Usually to the benefit of a local bookie. Django was a fine billiard
player, once again displaying his amazing hand co-ordination. Though he
would often give so many points away as a handicap at the start of the game
he invariably lost.
Django married Sophie Ziegler in 1943 and their son Babik, who went on to
become a fine composer and player, was born in 1944.
After the war he rejoined with Stephan in England and they both returned to
Paris. to prepare for an American tour organised by Duke Ellington. This
tour culminated in a performance with Ellington's orchestra at the Carnegie
Hall.

The Man
He was terrified of ghosts. He could not stop himself from gambling. He
adored movies, particularly American gangster films, and from them developed
a fondness for wide-brimmed hats that he liked to perch askew on his head
and tuck over one eye. He was amazingly adept at games, from pinball to
pool. He had a pet monkey.
And then there was the time he met Andrés Segovia. He played for the Spanish
classical maestro a short jazz crepuscule on his Selmer guitar. When Django
finished, Segovia was dazzled by the piece and asked for a transcription.
Django laughed and shrugged, saying that it was merely an improvisation.

And there was Django's pride, illustrated by the story of how the Hot Club
quartet became a quintet. Grappelli told the tale: "I could see something
was worrying Django. And when I asked him what the trouble was one day, he
replied: 'It doesn't matter all that much. It's just that when you're
playing, Stéphane, you've got both [QHCF guitarist Roger] Chaput and me
backing you, but when I'm soloing I've only got one guitar behind me!'" With
that, Django's brother Joseph was hired as a second rhythm guitarist.

The New Beginning
World War II split the cornerstones of the QHCF: Django stayed in France
while Grappelli was in England. Freed from the confines of the QHCF, Django
could explore other venues and band arrangements, setting the stage for a
second era of Django's music as he broadened his vocabulary of styles.

Django replaced Grappelli and his violin with the clarinet of Hubert
Rostaing, creating a band sound no doubt influenced by recordings of Benny
Goodman and Charlie Christian. Django also played with Fud Candrix's big
band. After the war in 1946, Django regrouped with Grappelli for a short
time before setting sail to tour the United States with Duke Ellington and
his orchestra.
During the 1940s, Django experimented with going electric. Devoted to his
acoustic Selmer guitar but having trouble cutting through the sound of the
larger bands he was playing in, he affixed a magnetic French-made Stimer
pickup to the petite bouche soundhole. The sound created a new dimension in
his playing, which is infused with bebop he heard in America.

The Coda
At the dawn of the 1950s, Django moved his small family-including his
second wife Sophie and their son Babik-from Paris to just south of the
capital. Django was in semi-retirement, playing now and then, but spending
more time fishing.
Django's final recording session took place on April 8th 1953, and it
produced a final four gems. It opens with the contemplative Le Soir, but
Chez Moi picks up the tempo with a happy go lucky feel and I Cover the
Waterfront again demonstrates his mastery of the modern ballad. Django's
final statement committed to wax was Deccaphonie, an up tempo 12 bar
improvisation, modern even by today's standards. A fitting epitaph perhaps.

On May 15, 1953, he was struck by a fatal stroke. He was but forty-three
years old.
Django Reinhardt lived a long life in his forty-three years. Perhaps it's
best for Django's old cohort, Stéphane Grappelli, to have the final word. He
summed up Django's playing in the 1954 Melody Maker interview: "He did
more for the guitar than any other man in jazz. His way of playing was unlike
anyone else's, and jazz is different because of him. There can be many other
fine guitarists, but never can there be another Reinhardt. I am sure of that."

Many pay their respects in the cemetery at Samois with respectful visitors
often leaving guitar picks at the base of the grave.

Extract from "The history of the guitar in jazz" by Norman Mongan

"The quintet's version of Sweet Sue recorded in 1935 has Reinhardt throwing
everything at the listener : Chinese like double stops, harmonics, flashy
multi-noted runs, the "Manouche" heritage present in the tremolo chords and
on single strings. He throws off octaves and fast glissandi in a busy,
thorough, driving style. Django had it all."

Django's influence on the modern movement could have been much greater
with another shot at America. But it was not to be. Nevertheless his place
in Jazz history is assured, and for many he will continue to be the greatest
guitarist that ever lived.

Django rarely if ever played a solo the same way twice.
Numerous recordings prove this to be true. His creative genius was not only
that of the master improviser, but also that of the composer, and he can be
credited with numerous pieces with beautiful melodies and sophisticated,
subtle harmonic structures. However, Django could not read or write musical
notation and he was at the mercy of others that could to get his ideas down
on paper.

On May 16th 1953 Django suffered a massive brain hemorrhage and died,
leaving behind his wife Sophie and son Babik. His music remains as vital
and exciting today as it was when he lived, a legacy of joy to all future
generations that rediscover the genius of the Belgian gypsy Django Reinhardt.

Sites:
http://www.redhotjazz.com/django.html
The Django Reinhardt Swing Page = http://www.hotclub.co.uk/
And from there I've used extracts from Michael Dregni's fine descriptive piece.

Reading:
Charles Delaunay, Django's French friend and manager, wrote a colourful
biography of the guitarist: "As water is a fish's element and the air a bird's,
music was Django's."

Colin Kilgour